


Stuff

by orphan_account



Category: Political RPF - US 21st c.
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-10
Updated: 2021-02-10
Packaged: 2021-03-16 18:14:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29336628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Relationships: Chasten Buttigieg/Pete Buttigieg
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	Stuff

They were on the phone, like most nights now. Chasten had come to South Bend twice and Pete traveled to Chicago just as often. So far it had been smooth and manageable. The scheduling part, that is. The dates were incredible. Chasten was weary of dating a politician, though a bit less after each conversation and each date (especially the ones where he himself was in charge of organizing them). Pete didn’t know what hit him half the time, he just knew being with Chasten was amazing. Tonight, however, he was on the verge of tears. The upcoming weekend he was expected for his monthly training with the reserves, but at least they could squeeze in an hour together on his way back. The weekend after that was a (mostly) mayoral disaster. A city council meeting on Friday night, the grand opening of a new business on Saturday afternoon, followed by a late dinner with an old friend that happened to be in town. On Sunday he himself had organized a gathering of all pastors of South Bend. And of course, there was Sunday night dinner with his parents. No way he could make his way to Chicago and back (and spend some actual time with Chasten) or ask Chasten to make the trip for just an hour of so. So, basically, they would not be seeing each other for 2 whole weeks. Two months prior he couldn’t have imagined the anguish that thought would cause him. Chasten came to the rescue, what if he came over for the entire weekend? They could at least have some time together in between Pete’s appointments and in the mean time Chasten could study. Pete’s heart skipped a beat (or two). An entire weekend of seeing Chasten! The thought of going home after a meeting, knowing Chasten would be there… Only after agreeing to Chasten’s suggestion way too eager, giving Chasten another opportunity to tease him, it occurred to him that an entire weekend includes two nights. He started stuttering “Well, uhm, so, uhm … I mean… I have a guest room… like… well, you know…” Chasten chuckled softly, mostly to himself, “Good. I won’t have to put up my tent in your backyard then.” When Pete looked at him, a shy grin breaking through, Chasten felt the happiness – and giddiness – right down to his toes.

Chasten arrived at six. Pete saw his next door neighbor walking by with her dog, seeing Chasten enter his house with an overnight bag. He didn’t care. They kissed. The kind of kisses that go with this stage of a butting relationship: chaste, but eager. He didn’t care to look if the neighbor saw it. They caught up on their day and enjoyed Thai take out. He showed Chasten the guest room and glowed when he saw Chasten choking up a bit looking at the flowers he had put on the cabinet for him. Somehow he had known he would appreciate that. (The owner of the flower shop must have missed the news of him coming out – like how? – when he said the flowers were for his date of that evening while giving him some pointers of what he thought the costly bouquet should look like. The guy said, while arranging it, “Well, mayor, that must be quite some lady you’ll be seeing tonight”. He came out for what felt like the 100th time – would that ever end?) Pete had to leave, but they kissed some more and for the first time there were tongues involved. Walking down the stairs, Pete started to worry a bit about having Chasten there all weekend, with the way he was feeling. Over the phone, Chasten had shared with him some of his difficulties in the past (though Pete sensed there was more) and Pete didn’t want to make Chasten feel unsafe. Or go too fast for him. He was anxious himself about moving forward anyway. 

It was not the best of meetings for Mayor Buttigieg, who couldn’t wait for the meeting to be over. His staff saved him and South Bend from a few bad decisions he might have agreed on. They moved a few issues forward to the next meeting (claiming they had to look into it) and wrapped it up in record time. He tried to keep himself from basically running out of there, hanging around a bit. “So, I’m guessing your beau is waiting for you?” Laura asked him, smirking. Pete grinned at her “I wasn’t of much use tonight, I’m afraid.” She laughed, “No... Now, go!” He texted Chasten on his way home. And realized that “home” had always been his parents house. 

He found Chasten on the couch, papers he had been working on and his laptop on the table. He had a glass of wine for himself and a beer for Pete ready. Pete sat down on the couch next to Chasten. “Did you get any work done?” Chasten sighed “Not really. Being here, in your house - I don’t know. I snooped around, honestly. Well, not snooping, really, just looking at the pictures. The books (you are so much smarter than I am…). Your life, I guess. Couldn’t wait for you to get back here.” “Yeah, me too. I completely messed up the meeting, my staff saved my me (and South Bend), thankfully.” They looked at each other, happiness flowing over and they kissed, cautiously, because they were both very well aware that there was nothing holding them back now. A few beers and some more wine was enough for both of them to let go and the kissing became anything but constrained. Tongues were involved once more and things got out of hand a bit after that. Pete’s mind told him to get a grip, slow down, but his body took over. Chasten seemed eager too, despite his bad experiences in the past. It happened in a daze, but at some point they ended up lying down on the couch, Chasten on top of Pete. Hands were roaming skin beneath their shirts, Chasten moved his kisses to below Pete’s ear and he softly nibbled at Pete’s earlobe. They were gently grinding. At some point Pete did slow it down (he was awfully close to embarrassing himself) and Chasten seemed to understand. Looking at him, he might not have been that far off himself. They panted, trying to get their breaths to calm down a bit, without saying anything, slumped against each other. Finally, Chasten just said “Damn” and that summed up Pete’s feelings quite well. Pete stole some glances of Chasten’s showing erection when he sat back up and he felt Chasten looking at him too. Impossible to come down from. In the end they put on some tv show, for distraction and an hour in, they were ready for bed. 

The next morning, Pete was in the kitchen making breakfast when Chasten came in. Pete had his glasses on, which Chasten thought made him look impossibly more cute (like, in a nerdy way). Chasten came up to him, hugging him from behind, placing a kiss in his neck “Morning. Breakfast smells good!” Pete never felt better (well, except for maybe last night). When they finished breakfast, Chasten softly put his hand over Pete’s. “Pete, about last night… things got pretty heated - was that okay? I don’t want to pressure you into anything”.   
“I wondered the same thing.”  
“You did?”  
“Yes. I mean, you told me about some pretty heavy stuff that happened to you and I never want to make you feel unsafe.”  
Chasten felt tears welling up in his eyes. Here he was, feeling like he may have forced himself on to this sweetest of guys and that guy was worried about making him feel unsafe.   
“I feel safe with you, Pete. I promise if things are going to fast for me, I’ll let you know, okay?”  
“Yes. And I’ll do the same.”  
“So – last night, on the couch, when you stopped us - did I make you feel uncomfortable then?”  
“What? Oh, God, no!”, Pete looked down in embarrassment, “that was more like… you know…”  
Chasten knew, of course, and squeezed his hand a bit “Good! Same here, I had a feeling you noticed that….”  
Pete turned impossibly more red “I did.”  
They were silent for a bit, until Chasten pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket. “I uh… I don’t expect anything to ‘happen’ this weekend, I really don’t, but I went to a clinic this week and I want you to have this.” Surprised, Pete opened the piece of paper – it was a full list of STD tests (all negative, just glancing at it).   
“Oh. Thanks?”, and after a silence, “Is this custom? Should I have done the same? God, I really have no idea what I’m doing here.”  
Once again, Chasten squeezed his hand “It’s okay, Pete. To be honest, it’s not like I have been ‘playing the field’ much, so, I don’t know either. And this doesn’t mean I want to be unsafe with you, when… I just need you to know, for sure, you know? This whole thing must be scary for you anyway.”  
“I wouldn’t say scary… mind-blowing, surprising, embarrassing, yes. But not scary, not with you.”  
“Awww – but really, you don’t have to be embarrassed with me.”  
“I know. I meant this entire … process, what it’s been like, to be honest. Posting that op-ed and then going out, that day. Asking a friend to help me with the dating profile-thing. Going on some awful dates, before you. And Thursday, on my way from work, I stopped at Walgreens. I wanted to buy… stuff, not expecting anything either from this weekend, well, I don’t know, also just to be sure, I guess. Couldn’t get myself to do it, the thought of the cashier looking at me like “well, look at that, the mayor wants to get laid”. And then, truthfully, I wouldn’t even have known what to buy. He looked miserable and somehow adorable at the same time.  
Chasten chuckled “Yeah, okay, I can see that being a thing. So, for now, I’ll be in charge of buying ‘stuff’, okay?” Pete nodded relieved. “So, since we’re having this conversation – we can move in that direction as fast or as slow as we want, it’s just us. But how uhm… knowledgeable… are you when it comes to that?”  
“Well, I got the basic idea, obviously. And I googled it, a few years ago. It baffled me. Watching to much straight romance on tv, I guess, I figured it would be the same for gays, except for, well... And then I read up about it - it seems so much work, it hardly feels romantic anymore.” He fell silent for a bit, but Chasten felt there was more, so he kept quiet. “And then, last night… I don’t know, it felt all pretty romantic up to this point, all of our dates, face-timing, talking on the phone, the texting. It felt like I was doing a good job with it and I stopped thinking about all that stuff. But then, last night, I … I guess you could say it was an awakening. My body totally took over, it was like it was telling my brain it had been in control long enough, my turn now. And now I worry. I worry about all that stuff, I worry that I won’t be attentive to how you are doing in all this.”  
Chasten got up from his stool and hugged Pete, held him tight in his arms for what felt like a long time, until he could feel him relax a bit. He looked at him, feeling a tug at his heart, God he was falling hard for him. “I promise you I will always tell you when I’m uncomfortable with you and I’m sure you will listen to me. And all that other stuff – just forget about it for now, okay? We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. Besides, no one says you have to do anything. There’s lots of gay couples who don’t practice anal sex and they still make love, you know. He looked at Pete – did he see some sort of disappointment in his expressive eyes? “Pete?”  
“Yeah… It’s probably naïve, in a Hallmark movie kind of way, but when I came out, I did it hoping that one day I could reach that level of intimacy with someone.”  
Chasten gave him another big hug, before he smiled “We can make a mood map, hang it up on that wall and put “anal sex” on it?”  
Pete huffed a laugh. “Yeah – maybe not.”  
Chasten kissed him, kissed him. “Just don’t get all wrapped up in that Hallmark movie thing, okay? I’m hoping the part of you that will be in charge when we get there has never watched Hallmark.”  
Pete let out a real laugh and tried to kiss Chasten back, but Chasten pushed him away. “Go! That new datacenter is waiting for the mayor to cut a ribbon!”

Chasten worked on his thesis due in the upcoming week. Pete was next to him on the couch after he came back, reading some city report. Every once in a while they reached out to each other, a quick peck or even just touching and both were very content. They had dinner with friends of Pete. Driving back, they knew, they felt it. They barely made it into the house when Chasten pushed Pete against the door, kissing him. It went downhill – well, upstairs more factually – fast from there.

Chasten woke up in the middle of the night, immediately knowing where he was. Pete may not have been the best kisser, so far, but last night he had been incredible. He had been down this road quite a few times, it had been awful, it had been ok, it had even been good, but never like this, hot, passionate and yet full of love. He cuddled up to Pete again, throwing away his last doubts about him, determined to give this relationship - this man - his all, hoping it would be enough.

Pete woke up an hour later, tossing and turning, subconsciously knowing something was off. It took him a bit to figure it out. He was naked – he never slept naked. And oh, Chasten was there with him, also naked, apparently. They were in the bed in the guest room, because neither of them had felt capable of changing the sheets and no way they could stay in the bed in the shape it was in. Sleepily Chasten reached out to him and Pete let him spoon him, again. He indulged in the feeling of being held like this. His mind went back to last night. In a lot of people’s mind it may not amount to much what happened, but to him everything happened. It was all about raging hormones, but still Chasten had managed to make him feel special and safe - and accomplished. And he had a feeling he might have done the same for Chasten. He drifted back to sleep feeling the luckiest man alive. Hallmark challenge completed. Stuff would work itself out later.


End file.
